Not much to say about leaving Myanmar. Up, check out, taxi, check in, immigration, waiting. Easy peasy.
A little wrap up of Myanmar then, as we sit here waiting for boarding:
It’s a country filled with opposites and diversity. Old and new, digital and extremely analog.
I sit in my own thoughts writing this at the gate and then suddenly all hell breaks loose. It all started innocently enough, Katja thought there should be more people at the gate, maybe even a plane… Then the gate personnel puts up a sign for Thai air or something – we fly Air Asia. Katja looks at the clock, it’s take off time already. We’ve been here for over two hours, but they changed the gate. Holy crap on a cracker!
We pick up our things and run it through the security and immediately meet a woman running in high heels with a Air Asia sign. She’s looking for us.
“Fast fast”, is all she can manage. I guess she’s neither a sprinter nor a long distance runner.
We need to go through another security station and luckily they are more or less sleeping on the job. If it wasn’t for the x-ray band being automatic nothing would have happened there.
I leave the high heel clicking lady in my wake and as Katja passes her she’s able to mumble:” boarding card, boarding card”
Katja hands them to her and we continue on to the plane. No one is eying us out, so I guess we didn’t piss them off to bad. The plane isn’t a quarter full and there is no-one that need to rise for us to reach our seat. Bags up, ass down and we’re ready for take off. Holy smoke that was a close call. Being stuck at the Yangon airport would not have made my Christmas celebration any better.
We arrive in KL and get a taxi to take us to the hotel. It’s a rainy day and quite humid here. My good good friend PK has booked a hotel room for us and entering into that was pure heaven. From living where the bathroom is constantly wet and the drain works just semi-decent to this luxury is just so great. It’s so we don’t want to leave for food, but another matter makes us go out. About thirty six hours ago Katja woke during the night because she was itching on the back of her calf. A closer inspection showed a rather heavy rash. It hasn’t gotten any better so we decided to go to the doctor. In a Skype talk with her daddy he mentioned that the hotel might have a doctor on call. They didn’t but there is a skin clinic in the building next door so we head over there.

This gotta be one of the best doctors ever. He has a picture of him and Catharina Zeta-Jones with him on the wall in the waiting room. I go in with Katja as I normally do when we visits doctors and he’s just so laid back and cool. Turns out he’s got a birthday just a day apart from Katja and from that info everyone is friends. Probable cause is blamed on insects (something Katja don’t want to think to much about) or an allergic reaction to something she’s touched. Antihistamine and some ointment, I guess it will do the trick.
Then he asks about our stay and we discover he’s going to Bali for the Christmas. We give him a little info when he ask for it, and he’s sorry we can’t go out for drinks together as we’ve left when he returns. Probably the second best small talker I know next to you, Ben.
Now we’re just across the street from the hotel at a shopping mall looking for shampoo. Yup, best way to spend the evening before Christmas, right?
I don’t figure it would be much celebration here as Malaysia is one of the most Muslim countries in the world. We walked through a side entrance to the mall and suddenly I was in Christmas heaven. Even I who is more like the Grinch than a holiday jolly boy had to smile. This is Christmas on steroids. They have enormous decorations, Christmas songs blasting from the speakers, Santa himself taking pictures with all and any who lines up and a helper with a long blond hair and long legs.

We grab a coffee and talk a little before Katja venture off on her own. It’s always high risk to let her do shopping on her own, but she came back and proudly told need she had passed up an offer on a cream. When I heard the amount I just silently nodded and feel we still have a long way to go before I’m convinced she can move around alone a whole day.
Now it’s getting about time to head back. The internet at the hotel is great and we have a load of blog posts to post. The pictures was set to upload before we went out and I think we’ll get some out tonight.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!